THE MAIN PURPOSE of this book is to raise awareness about the problems faced by deprived urban children and their families and communities in trying to cope with scarcity, neglect and discrimination. The volume is the result of a three-year project undertaken by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) that investigated the plight of impoverished children in Brazil, the Philippines, India, Kenya and Italy. The different authors argue for the importance of a greater understanding of what “children in especially difficult circumstances” (CEDC) and their families can cope with, their survival strategies and what they can achieve. The importance of cohesive neighbourhoods and of supportive environments is emphasized, as is the need to analyze examples of successful mobilization of people and resources. Innovative approaches that are sustainable and cost-effective should be transferred across countries, and their lessons built upon. The book begins with a personal foreword by one of UNICEF’s senior urban advisors that charts the development of children’s rights and of the strategies and approaches adopted in the field of child welfare since the 1960s, illustrated by his experiences in Brazil. The introduction charts the development of the Urban Child Project since its inception in 1988. The methodologies adopted are discussed, and the dimensions of the problem, in the wider context of global urbanization trends, are investigated. The key issues of childhood, family, coping strategies, communities and neighbourhoods are defined, permitting a comparative description of the situations faced by urban children across the five countries studied, as well as assessments of the policies and programmes affecting urban children. “Children in especially difficult circumstances” include abused, abandoned, working and street children, and chapter one concludes with an overview of effective initiatives in tackling the problems faced by this group. The five following chapters then offer a detailed situation analysis for each of the countries considered in the project - Brazil, the Philippines, India, Kenya and Italy. The final two chapters recap and explore some comparative trends in the individual country studies, and describe some of the more innovative policies and programmes discovered. There is a comprehensive methodological review, a discussion of the themes emerging from the earlier chapters and key predictors, indicators and preventive and protective approaches are identified. Two appendices and a very broad bibliography complete this book.